The Night Knows All The Secrets
by KawaiiKitsuneGirl
Summary: Tokuchi shakes him awake and asks "What does this make us?" "Anything you want," is the quick answer, and Tokuchi wishes he'd drunk a little more that night.


**A/N: This started as a humorous one shot for Blue exorcist or Noragami, maybe 1k long.**

 **No, idek what went wrong. But hey, been meaning to write a One Outs fanfic so…guess here it is! I hope that some people actually read this, looking at the size of this archive, so kudos to any and all who make it here! There's seriously not enough fanfics in here, so I shall do my best to extend it a bit…if anyone has any ideas for**

 **I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.**

 **And trust me. This was fun to write.**

* * *

Kojima's eyes feel heavy, and his eyelids keep sinking shut, his eyes hiding from view before he jerks upright again with a sudden movement that wakes right him back up.

His head nods again and Kojima's breathing slows down, evening out to a natural pattern that nobody else seems to notice, but the man is just so tired that he's not sure if he can play.

They're sitting in the dugout, on the attack, and luckily his skills as a pinch hitter haven't been needed yet (it's only a practice match anyway) but it's a warm day, early as well, and he couldn't get to sleep properly last night. He's got red eyes as the only lasting memoir of the late night, but nobody notices so it's all still fine and dandy.

His eyes twitch shut again, and Kojima falls asleep.

His head sinks lightly onto Tokuchi's shoulder, who grunts on reflex and glances over to his team mate, pulling off the yellow cloth that covers his eyes in order to do so. Kojima's head rises and falls ever so slightly with the movement of his chest, and his face had slipped into a surprisingly peaceful expression, one of relaxation, Tokuchi realises belatedly.

 _Does Kojima ever actually relax around us then?_ The blonde wonders, casting a surreptitious glance around the rest of the shelter. No one else seems to be missing Kojima's input or noticing that he wasn't over there talking with the team, but Tokuchi shrugged. That was something which could be dealt with another day.

Carefully, he moves the cloth back over his eyes and shifts Kojima's head onto the top of his shoulder to make it a bit more comfortable, then proceeds to rest himself.

When it's time for the innings, Tokuchi gently lifts Kojima up off his broad shoulders and slides him delicately onto the bench and walks on pitch, scoring strikes in succession in order to return to his friend and the dugout.

Nobody notices him hurrying the proceedings along, not as anything unusual.

* * *

A few weeks on, the Lycaons are playing consecutive games and so Tokuchi keeps them all behind after that first game to go over tactics (the manager is clueless, which is just the way he likes it).

The room is dark, the better to see the projector, but everyone's attention is riveted to the screen as he tells them all about the opposition's tactics and how the game worked out the way it did. It's quite late by the time they finish, but the blonde was never one to go to bed early, so he doesn't much care.

They all leave in a clattering of chairs and a clamour of voices (everyone's become rather pumped up for the game the next day) and he's closed down the projector and video camera before he notices.

Kojima's fallen asleep, again, in the corner of the room. No one else is here; this is something Tokuchi's going to have to deal with on his own.

"Oi," he says, glaring down at the man. "Get up," Kojima doesn't move, and the blonde sighs.

"Kojima, get up," he tries again, shaking the other's shoulder.

"Kojima!" he yells and Kojima wakes up with a jump, breathing heavily and eyes wide.

"Yes? Oh, Tokuchi?" he asks sleepily, and Tokuchi frowns, before hefting the sturdy man out of the chair and carrying him in a lift to his car. It's awkward, but neither of them says anything and Kojima falls asleep again. Tokuchi finds himself glancing down at his friend every so often, lingering on the handsome features that never seem so happy when awake.

They make it back to Tokuchi's flat in once peace, and although it's a little bit tricky handling the door key with a grown man in his arms (a heavy one at that), he manages with only slightly less than his usual grace, and the two of them settle under his sheets, both too tired to bother finding anywhere else to sleep.

"Night Toua," Kojima whispers and Tokuchi smiles rather widely despite himself.

"Good night Hiromichi," he responds and falls asleep next to him.

They stay at his house for the night, and if when Ideguchi knocks on the door at Tokuchi's, looking for some tips on the upcoming match, he opens the unlocked door to find the two of them asleep, he never mentions it.

Nobody does.

* * *

They're at an award ceremony this time, and Tokuchi is more or less paying attention (in all honesty, everyone is shocked that he bothered to turn up at all) when he notices Kojima's posture slumping next to him, and in an instant the man is resting on him again.

It's become a common occurrence now, so much that he doesn't even blink at it- not that he really had in the first place- and just absent-mindedly runs a hand over the stubble of his friend's hair, then freezes in shock.

Which is, for starters, something Tokuchi does not do.

He's also not sure why he felt the need to stroke Kojima's almost non-existent hair, but writes it off as a thing that he can't explain and allows the man to continue sleeping, puffing on his cigarette lazily and ignoring the scandalous glances he gets from a few other players for smoking at the ceremony (he's sure they do it too so he doesn't take any notice of the hypocrites).

Their team hasn't won anything, it's really more of a fund raiser than anything else, so Kojima is left alone to dream softly.

Tokuchi leaves him there, resting on his arm, until he hears an unusually distressed noise and automatically looks down at the brown haired man, whose features have twisted with distress and he furrows his brow at the unexpected turn in events.

He hates being caught off guard.

The blonde experimentally pokes his arm, not expecting anything after the first time, but this reaction's worse and Kojima flinches away, causing Tokuchi to send a furtive glance around the crowd of players and press to make sure that no one was catching this.

"Kojima," he hisses, bending low over his friend's body to whisper it in his ear because of course the other feels as though it is the perfect time to fall asleep in his lap (he's only blushing a very little).

Another small noise emerges from the batter's lips, strangling itself in the attempt to escape and Tokuchi wonders how many nights Kojima spends like this.

"Kojima…" Tokuchi tries again, helplessly, then he considers his options and tries one last course of action.

"Hiro…" he whispers into the large ear, but no response is forthcoming and so Tokuchi slaps his friend relatively gently across the face.

"Oi!" Kojima yelps and sits bolt upright, glaring at Tokuchi. "Toua?" he frowns, upset, and the pitcher files away the fact that they are now using first names to scan through later.

"You wouldn't wake up," he offers as explanation, and Kojima nods but the blonde still keeps receiving little hurt glances from the corner of his eye.

"You were making strange noises," he gives up as further information and causes the other to frown unhappily but he settles after that, with only the occasional side look his way.

Of course, as always, nobody has noticed a thing.

* * *

A match is their win and Mihara, in an unusual bout of generosity, volunteers to buy everyone drinks. The core team wander down to the local pub and celebrate together, rowdy as always and just as drunk.

Everyone seems to pass out within their first two drinks, and by this point it's only normally Tokuchi and Kojima left awake and sober enough to talk; drinks don't tend to affect the two of them.

Tokuchi waits at the counter for his drinking partner, but when nobody walks over after five minutes, he turns around and is surprised by what he sees.

Kojima is asleep on the couch with his head awkwardly resting against the seat behind him, and he just sighs at the familiar situation, going over to sit next to him and staring off into space. The hitter slips sideways and his head nestles itself in Tokuchi's lap who blinks in shock and then goes back to his normal poker face.

He doesn't look down again until he feels water soaking into the material next to his thigh and his first reaction is to look for the spilt drink.

But there is no spilt drink.

All that is there is Kojima, crying silent tears although he is unconscious, and is hugging his leg for comfort.

He sits there in shock, wondering how often this occurs, and then realises he should do something and props his friend up, shaking him awake and becoming exasperated at the lack of reaction he receives, until he sparks upon the genius plan of spilling some water over his face and carefully tips the cup over the other's face.

Kojima partially wakes up, his vision still blurry from sleep, and focuses squinting on Tokuchi.

"T-Toua?" he asks, voice hoarse, and the pitcher nods once in confirmation, whispering "Hiro," in reply

An open smile appears on his face, lighting it up despite the tear stains still streak down it, and he leans forwards towards Tokuchi (who knows exactly what's happening) and kisses him, rough lips pressing against the blonde's thinner ones and then smiles happily, falling asleep again, but this time on his shoulder (just like that first time and Tokuchi wonders if that was when this all started, or if it was there from that very first meeting in the lift).

Tokuchi shakes him awake and asks "What does this make us?"

"Anything you want," is the surprisingly quick answer, and Tokuchi wishes he'd drunk a little more that night.

Either way, he falls asleep with his head leaning lightly on top of Kojima's and they all sleep on through to the morning.

* * *

Kojima's asleep on the coach to their next game, and this time, with the exception of the manager and coach, everyone's noticed.

"Kojima-san's asleep!?" Ideguchi exclaims, successfully alerting the rest of the coach to the famous player's current position.

"Yes," deadpans Tokuchi, glancing down at his partner as he says so. There's a little flickering going on behind his eyelids, but the pitcher is fairly confident in his abilities to wake Kojima up before anything starts happening.

Ideguchi flushes in embarrassment, but his sharp eyes also catch the way that Tokuchi seems accustomed to this and not as surprised as Ideguchi himself would have been.

Of course, there is always the fact that the blonde is a master of deception in a way that he could never be, but the catcher is fairly certain it's more than that.

"He's so happy in his sleep," mutters one of the others, and Tokuchi rolls his eyes, a small movement that only Ideguchi seems to catch (and glances around at the others and none of them notice anything odd about this).

"How often does he fall asleep like this, Tokuchi?" the battery asks bluntly, earning some strange glances from the players and a small, triumphant smile from the pitcher himself.

"A few games, some ceremonies, the occasional bar," the blonde lists, delighting in the looks of astonishment from the previously oblivious people, and frowning again as Kojima shifts uncomfortably in his seat.

Everyone notices how Kojima leans towards Tokuchi as he does so, still asleep, and rests his head on the blonde's shoulders.

Ideguchi gasps as he finally connects the dots, but the pitcher looks up and silently orders him to be quiet with a small glare, to which he complies hastily and subsides.

Kojima moans in his sleep, a small unhappy noise that Tokuchi responds to with a frown and most of the others with confusion.

"What's going on?" someone near the back yells, and the hitter flinches on the blonde's shoulder, slipping down his body to rest again in his lap. It seems to become the normal position for the two of them now, and they've reached an unspoken decision to continue as partners, but they haven't said anything to the others.

"Shh," someone else violently hushes back, because they all respect Kojima as the oldest member of the team and the one who's achieved the most, and also for his quiet, responsible nature. He's helped them all in the past, welcomed them one by one to his team, even as his friends left, and most of them remember it.

"Kojima?" Tokuchi asks in his usual uncaring fashion, staring blankly down at the man in his lap, who's brow is furrowed in the usual position for his nightmares (Tokuchi's learnt quite a lot about him now) and his lips are definitely twisted in an attempt to stop making any sort of noise, but he knows this cycle as well.

Most days it's the noises or the tears, but unfortunately, today seems to be both- the one time when people are actually paying them any attention.

Tokuchi scowls at the rest of the coach. "Don't you have anything better to do than gawp?" he hisses, turning away from everyone else (at least Kojima had the sense to sit at a window seat) but the bus doesn't go back to the noisy chaos that it normally contains; he's misjudged the others and they all stay silent.

"Yes, Kojima sleeps. He is a human. Stop staring," he glares this time, not his sullen glare that he uses to piss people off, but a proper death glare. He doesn't use it often because it's more effective when unknown. It's only the second time he's had to use it with the Lycaons and it sufficiently cows them enough to get back to quiet, but private conversations.

In his lap, Kojima moans and twists, curling further into Tokuchi, who frowns down at his partner. Ideguchi is the only one who dares to openly stare at two men, but nearly everyone is still focussed on them.

Tokuchi doesn't even notice.

He bends low over Kojima so that the others can't hear him and whispers "It's fine, Hiro. No one's hurt, no one's going to hurt you," and straightened up again, casually looking out the window, but his body gives him away as his hand goes on autopilot and caresses Kojima's cheek.

"T-Toua," he mutters in his sleep and twitches closer, which Tokuchi's thankful of because they really don't need a bigger audience and it seems like the waterworks have started.

"Hiro, it's time to wake up," he states, momentarily forgetting where they are and mentally cursing as he hears the gasps that come from people knowing that they are on a first name basis. They have always kept that fact from them.

Glaring at those who dare to look over, Tokuchi carefully shakes Kojima's shoulder. He doesn't flinch away from the contact, but he never wakes up from this either.

The only solutions they've found so far are water poured on his face (which would be cruel right now) and gentle touches. Cliché though it sounds, Kojima is a romantic and always wakes up if Tokuchi kisses him, but that's another issue with this situation.

"Hiro," he mutters again, curling over to stroke his cheek. "Wake up," he says again, and stares hard at the batter, who shifts towards the light and Tokuchi sighs and throws his cloth over Kojima's eyes because goddamn the man, he was still crying.

"Hiro, you need to get up," the blonde repeats himself, saying the name maybe slightly more than necessary because he still likes the feel of it on his tongue, and Kojima finally stirs.

They still have a captive audience.

"Toua…" he breaths out, more of an exhale than a word and so Toua finally deems it to be the right time to shake the other, so he prods his friend's shoulder and waits for Kojima to return to reality.

"About time, Hiro," he says at normal volume, figuring that everyone already knows they use first names: no point hiding it.

"Is it morning already?" Kojima asks, his voice muffled by the material flung over his face.

"It's time to get up," Tokuchi responds, side stepping the question so that they can discuss it in a moment.

"Oh, okay…morning, Toua," Kojima answers and the pitcher carefully rubs all of the stains off of his partner's cheeks and in the same fluid motion pulls the cloth to the side.

Kojima smiles once, a small private smile, and then sits up and kisses Tokuchi, who sits motionless and then realises that the damage has been done and returns the kiss quickly, then pulls Kojima back onto his own seat.

The entire coach is silent.

"Hiro, just one thing," Tokuchi says in a bored tone.

Kojima finally opens his eyes and looks around them, seeing where they are and just how many people are watching them.

"…Damn," he accurately sums up the situation, and returns to resting on the shoulder.

Tokuchi couldn't have said it better himself.


End file.
